I went on an epic road trip for work a few weeks ago.

I drove from Pittsburgh to Colorado with one of my co-workers, Matt.  The Hubster and Matt’s wife, Cassie, flew to Colorado and we then hung out over the weekend in Denver.

This trip was epic.

In case you want to skip these posts, I’ll highlight it – I ate a lot of hot dogs and junk food.

If you want to see the entire middle of the country, come on in! 🙂

Matt and I decided that the theme of the trip was for us to try to eat food that was local to the area where we stayed. We really were able to stay true to most of it.

That being said, there were some Starbucks and McDonalds fries tossed in there. (I think a Carl’s Jr burger…but that was at a random rest stop in the western part of Kansas and there wasn’t anything else.)

Our first stop was in Columbus, OH at Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace.

I had the Loaded Potato Dog with fries and a drink.

The topping and the bread were good, but the hot dog skin was a little bit tough for my liking. (Yes, we had whole discussions about this and I know we have our snobby pants on for this.)

Matt had the chili cheese dog and a spicy dog and he felt the same way.

We stopped in Louisville for the night and since you all know how I love bourbon, I was in heaven when I saw this room at our hotel.

Side note about the hotel…it was amazing, but also staying there were 700 kids from a middle school Model UN.

I love kids. The Hubster and I would love to have a kid.

But 700 of them who are running up and down your hallway and banging on your door? Not so much.

After about an hour of that, we asked to switch rooms.

I felt like I was an old lady requesting a new room, but it was crazy. The kids weren’t bad, they were just being kids.

We changed rooms, I had a drink of my favorite bourbon – Makers 46 – and all was right in the world.

The bartender at our hotel told us that Louisville is known for the Hot Brown Sandwich, which is served at the Brown Hotel.

We headed over there and let me tell you, it was like 12 degrees outside and the 5 block walk made me think that I had no more feeling in my face. I’m from Buffalo, but it was cooooold.

I ordered a mint julep because Louisville and the sandwich.

We ate basically in the hotel lobby and the check in desk looked like an old fashioned bank, which was really cool.

The sandwich was okay. I think there was too much going on for me to truly enjoy it. We are glad we tried it though.

We capped the night with dessert drinks and went to bed, ready for the next day of sightseeing!

Shirt | Sweater | Similar Jeans | Boots

On our way to St. Louis, we found Santa Claus, IN.

Of course, I had to stop in.

It was a cute town that has an amusement park.

You guys – an amusement park that’s called Holiday Park or something.

I’m totally going back there with The Hubster!

We made it St. Louis in time for lunch!

Ignore Matt in the background – it was super cold and he was trying to warm his hands and really didn’t want to be in my selfie.

Isn’t the arch cool?

Anyways – we had fried ravioli (that we devoured and didn’t stop to take pictures) and Imo’s pizza.

The pizza was really good and I guess in St. Louis they put the cheese over the toppings?

If you’re from St. Louis, let me know because I’m just assuming that’s how it goes.

After lunch, we hopped back in the car and made our way to Kansas City for the night.

We decided to go out for dinner and Matt found a place for hot dogs. It turned out to be a kind of dive bar that had a blues band playing for Mardi Gras!

They were amazing.

The lady playing spoons on the washboard was awesome! We had so much fun there.

Our hot dogs were really good.  I had a reuben hot dog which came with saurkraut, cheese, thousand island dressing and a pickle.

It was awesome!

Matt’s had jalapenos and fritos and cheese and he loved it.

Our best hot dog yet!

We headed to bed kind of early because our longest drive was up the next day.